Senator Barack Obama (D-Il) shattered Dem fundraising records when he raised $32.5 million in the last quarter. He has now raised nearly $59 million for his campaign for the Presidency.

Sen. Hillary Clinton raised $27 million, also surpassing previous Democratic highs. John Edwards raised his stated goal of $9 million.

Obama will be able to compete dollar for dollar with Clinton. He has at least the same amount of free media access. When the campaign starts in earnest after Labor Day, Obama will have every tool he needs to win the nomination. As will Hillary. Edwards is banking on a win in Iowa to propel him. He has the funds to give it his best shot. The other candidates, including my guy Sen Dodd, will need to capture lightning in a bottle in Iowa.

Money is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for winning the nomination. Ask Howard Dean. So, this does not decide the nomination. If you believe in polls this early, Obama trail Hillary badly. In my view, nothing is decided until Iowa. We'll see what happens. May the best candidate win.

The New York Times has a very nice and long profile of Elizabeth Edwards today. I hope I get to meet her at some point during the campaign. Her heart and her politics are in the right place.

As for John Edwards, as I wrote here, he's coming around on mandatory minimum sentences and the crack-powder cocaine disparity (as is Hillary), and here's what he said on Iraq and Guantanamo at a Tampa fundraiser this weekend:

Most important, he said, is ending the war in Iraq. "This is not politics, " he said. "This is about life and death."

Edwards said if elected he would close Guantanamo Bay detention camp on his first day in office and make it clear the United States does not condone torture. He also pledged to stop "illegal spying" on Americans and push for an end to the violence in Darfur.

It's also refreshing to see he held a $15 fundraiser. It brought out 500 people. Edwards has been very gracious in making himself available to others than fatcats and even to bloggers.

On Monday, Bill Clinton joins Hillary for campaign events in Iowa. I don't think the question is will it help or hurt, but how much will it help?

Bill's role has been carefully crafted. He will introduce Hillary as the person who knows her best and provide biographical details of her life and talk about her accomplishments. Hillary then will speak about issues facing the country.

The theme of the tour is “Ready for Change, Ready to Lead.”

Via Sentencing Law and Policy, I see that at the Democratic debate on Saturday night at Howard University, the candidates spent six minutes on sentencing reform and mandatory minimum sentences.

The Sentencing Project reports:

Democratic Forum, the first of the All-American Presidential Forums broadcast on PBS and hosted by Tavis Smiley, addressed the issues of mandatory minimum sentencing and racial disparity in the nation's criminal justice system Thursday. Hosted at Howard University in Washington, D.C., the forum focused on crime and punishment as one of eight topics presented to the Democratic candidates.

Rep. Kucinich first brought up the need to eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing when asked about the disparate rate of incarceration, because "We know who's serving those mandatory minimums."

Several candidates addressed the need for reform of federal crack cocaine sentencing laws, including Sen. Joseph Biden, who this week introduced the Drug Sentencing Reform & Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act of 2007 which would eliminate the crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity.

The entire transcript is here and the sentencing issue portion begins here. You can watch the segment here.

Shorter version: Kucinich has always seen the light. Hillary and Edwards have made major shifts in the right direction, kudos to them. Richardson disappoints and is the only candidate to evade the question.

As to specifics, here's what each of them said.

Enjoy and stay for the credits.

For those not in a humorous mood, check out this collection from Harpers on Undoing Bush: how to repair eight years of sabotage, bungling, and neglect (Via Susie at Suburban Guerilla.)

If you'd like to watch the musical tribute to Princess Diana currently ongoing at Wembley Stadium in London, here's the streaming link.

Prince William and Prince Harry will mark the 10th Anniversary of their mother's death with an event to celebrate her life.

Watch a live stream of the concert here, Sunday July 1, 11AM EST/8AM PST. The full concert will also be available here following the live streaming broadcast.

NBC will have a primetime special tonight with 3 hours worth at 9:00 pm ET.

Edward Lazarus is incredibly smart. His incisive writing in analyzing the law and the politics of the Supreme Court is both accessible and enlightening. But like too many other academic Broders, he is too detached to truly express, in my opinion, the seriousness of the current state of our political legal battles. In today's WaPo, he provides yet another example of that detachment:

[T]he court of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced itself as even more conservative than William H. Rehnquist's court, which, from 1986 to 2005, undercut many of the progressive initiatives from Earl Warren's era. The Roberts court also showed little regard for the court's own precedents, overruling or eviscerating a slew of past decisions that did not conform to conservative principles.

This is a jarring, and accurate, paragraph. It should send chills down Lazarus' spine. If it does, it is not reflected in Lazarus' column:

Tom Friedman writes:

It’s too early to pronounce the U.S. military’s surge in Iraq a failure. It’s not too early to say, though, that there’s no sign that it’s succeeding — that it’s making Iraqi politics or security better in any appreciable, self-sustaining way. At best, the surge is keeping Iraq from descending into full-scale civil war. At best we are dog paddling in the Tigris. Which means at least we should start to think about what happens if we have to get out of the water.

If, Mr. Friedman Unit? But he at least accepts it is time to leave:

The first choice for many Shiites is a pro-Iranian, Shiite-dominated religious Iraq, where Sunnis have little say and little power. . . . In short, our first-choice soldiers are dying for Iraqis’ second choice. That is wrong, terribly wrong. It has to stop.

That is progress of a sort from Friedman. He blathers on about Kurdistan and other silliness but the important point is this: Tom Friedman says it is time to get out.

How do you measure cocaine use in any location? According to a new U.N. Study, it is lines per people.

Spain has the highest number of cocaine users in the world, followed by the U.S. City-wise, New York City is first, followed by Miranda de Ebro, Spain.

New Yorkers remain the world’s most enthusiastic consumers of cocaine, inhaling an estimated 134 lines of the drug for every 1,000 people. The residents of Miranda are said to get through 97 lines per 1,000 people. This compares with 20 lines per 1,000 in London, 11 in Paris and 2 in Frankfurt.

The Spanish Government, unhappy with these numbers, is bolstering its war on drugs to include restaurant waiters and bartenders who will monitor use of the bathrooms.

Alarmed by soaring cocaine use, the Spanish Government plans to train waiters and barmen in the subtle art of spotting punters who may be using the lavatories too often.

Businesses that comply will receive a special certificate declaring them drug-free.

More....

Hillary defends people like me:

Taking a swipe at a potential GOP presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized Fred Thompson for suggesting illegal Cuban immigrants pose a terrorist threat. "I was appalled when one of the people running for or about to run for the Republican nomination talked about Cuban refugees as potential terrorists," Clinton told Hispanic elected officials. "Apparently he doesn't have a lot of experience in Florida or anywhere else, and doesn't know a lot of Cuban-Americans." . . . The actor and former Tennessee senator not[ed] that the United States had apprehended 1,000 people from Cuba in 2005, Thompson said, "I don't imagine they're coming here to bring greetings from Castro. We're living in the era of the suitcase bomb." . . .

On a serious note, it was an absurd thing for Thompson to say. And it was smart politics by Hillary to slam him for it.

What it surprise you if I told you that 53% of Americans think there should be a 3rd Party? Would you think that was a huge sign that there is room for Bloomberg to make a run as an Independent? If it would let me refer you to this:

8.4%

That was the vote Ross Perot received in 1996 when, as now, 53% of Americans said to pollsters there should be a 3rd Party. Remember that when Broder, Fineman and the DC Gasbags trumpet that poll result.

The second quarter campaign revenue stats are coming in. Hillary's campaign raised in the neighborbood of $27 million, beating her first quarter total, and Obama is expected to equal or best that amount.

John Edwards is third with about $9 million and in 4th place, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has raised $7 million.

Richardson also grew his number of individual donors from the first quarter, from 24,270 to 38,000.

When do candidates like Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, who can't win, drop out and work for the benefit of the Democratic party instead of themselves?

I have always thought Richardson is campaigning for the VP slot on the ticket. So I'll give him a pass and say he should hang in there for now.

Related: HillCam is coming.

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